by Addison Fox
So who’d been talking about Keira and him?
Jackson shook the ice in his empty lowball glass, his gaze still firmly lasered on Keira where she stood in a small circle of her clients. “She’s the entire package. Beauty, brains, and a body that could drive a man to distraction.”
Nathan fought once more to slow the fuse on his temper, especially when he wanted to pummel Jackson to the ground. The other man laughed as he raised his glass. “Looks like I’m due for a refill. Enjoy the view.”
Nathan took an over-large sip of his Scotch. What the hell was wrong with him?
He’d spent his adult life, and a good portion of his youth, polishing a cold exterior that not only kept people at a distance but ensured they steered clear of him. Yet here he was, mere days after meeting Keira McBride, showing cracks.
A friendly voice broke into his reverie. “Those look like awfully serious thoughts for a party.” Before he could reply, Sally Hughes lifted a full champagne flute to her lips as her gaze roamed the room. “Thankfully, everyone else appears to be having a good time, so I can congratulate my girls on another job well done.”
“They’ve created something pretty spectacular.” The compliment sprang to his lips and Nathan had no interest in holding it back.
“That they have.”
Nathan turned toward the older woman, realizing here was a prime chance to learn a bit more. He’d delude himself and call it intelligence gathering, but he knew damn well what it was.
He wanted to know more about Keira.
“She can’t have slept much, getting prepared for this, but she looks like she’s ready to run a marathon.”
Sally nodded as a small sigh escaped her lips. “She accomplishes more in a day than most people do in an entire week.”
“All the while making it look surprisingly easy and doing it on a pair of stilts.” Nathan didn’t miss the sly smile or Sally’s sideways glance.
“Don’t let her fool you. That woman and her sisters work harder than anyone I know. And don’t tell me you’re faulting the woman for being fond of her heels?”
“You can’t put on an event like this sitting back on your laurels.” He shot her a grin. “And I’d never fault a woman for wearing heels, even as I thank God I will never have to wear a pair.”
“No, you can’t fault her, and yes, you’d better say your prayers.”
Sally turned fully to face him. “Since I hear the note of genuine respect in your voice, I’m going to go out on a limb. Why are you interested in the company? There have to be far easier targets than a trio of fiercely protective businesswomen and their equally fierce chief counsel. They’re not going to make this easy on you.”
“I don’t expect them to.”
“You could take a different approach. Accept a board position. Help guide the company.”
“And what fun would that be?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” Sally’s gaze grew assessing, and Nathan couldn’t help but feel he was being dressed down somehow. “I think if the two of you became allies, you’d be unstoppable.”
“I told Keira this and I have no problem telling you as well. I have no interest in removing her and her sisters from the company. I can appreciate good business sense when I see it. I wouldn’t want the McBride sisters going anywhere.”
“They won’t work for you.”
“Now that’s just stubborn.”
“An emotion you’re familiar with.”
Nathan knew he’d get no further so he opted for a diplomatic retreat. “Keira gave me a tour earlier,” he said, and he was pleased when the fight in Sally’s shoulders relaxed. “She explained how this event was the key to her and her sisters’ takeover of the company.”
“Shrewd move on their part. Turn a profit on the biggest loser in the company and who can deny you?”
“And I don’t suppose you had anything to do with that?”
A smile with distinct overtones of the cat swallowing the canary spread across her face. “Let’s just say I know how to offer sage advice. And since I do, I’ll offer you a small piece.”
“What’s that?”
“Sometimes all the hard work in the world can leave you with nothing but more work.” Sally gestured to the room with her champagne flute. “It means other areas of life suffer.”
“Some sacrifice is necessary to reach a goal.”
“True.” Sally nodded, her gaze firmly pinned on Keira. “But once a goal is met, some of those things that were ignored should take center stage.”
Despite a maniacal unwillingness to discuss his love life with anyone, he couldn’t miss the very clear undertone of the conversation. Or tamp down the curiosity to hear Sally out. “So you’re saying she works too hard.”
“I am.” Sally snagged another flute of champagne off a passing tray and handed it to him. “I suspect it’s a state you’re rather familiar with.”
Before he could correct her assumptions, McBride Media’s chief counsel floated into the crowd.
…
Sally’s words continued to rattle around his head like a bag of marbles, but Nathan worked deftly to ignore them as he circulated through the room. He’d already set up three meetings for the following week with possible suppliers for his new hotel, the party atmosphere going a long way toward making people generous with their time.
Satisfied with a successful evening, the urge to shift toward more pleasurable pursuits moved to the forefront of his thoughts. His gaze alighted on Keira just as the man she spoke with called his name.
“Nathan!” The chef he’d lined up to discuss a restaurant in his new property beckoned him over. “Come meet the brains behind this incredible event.” Daniel Howard’s gaze was overly bright from a few extra glasses of champagne and his arm was wrapped comfortably around Keira’s shoulders.
“I’ve already met Ms. McBride, Dan. She puts on quite a party.”
“The best.” Daniel gave her shoulders another squeeze, and Nathan didn’t miss the wry grin that spread across Keira’s face before she shot him a saucy wink.
“So, Dan, about that schedule we were discussing for your new line of cookware.”
Dan gestured wildly with his glass. “A page in every issue for the next six months. I’m totally in.”
“Wonderful. I’ll follow up next week with the paperwork. We can also talk about a schedule on the website along with a promotion we’ll do for some of our lucky readers.”
The smooth way she handled Daniel, all the while slowly unwinding herself from his tipsy hold, was a thing of beauty. It was only as the chef was tottering away from them that Nathan turned to acknowledge her. “Nicely done.”
“Thank you.”
“I didn’t, however, take you for the type to roll drunks.”
A light gasp escaped her lips before she quickly recovered. “I’m in too good a mood to be offended by that. Besides,” she said, taking a sip of her champagne, “I don’t roll drunks. He already agreed to be in the magazine a few weeks ago. The website stuff was the new addition.”
He tapped his glass against hers. “So I have to repeat, nicely done.”
“Thank you.”
“Dan wasn’t kidding. I’ve never seen an event run better than this one. Usually, no matter how well run something is, you can see a few cracks around the edges. But this has been smooth as silk.”
“Except for the oh-so-elegant disaster with the wait staff this morning and that tray full of glasses.”
Nathan moved toward her, his hand finding purchase at the small of her back as his lips hovered near her ear. “Oh, I don’t know. Thanks to that clumsy waiter, you ended up in my arms.”
Her eyes widened. “Nathan…”
“You’ve done more than enough entertaining. Tell me you’ll leave with me. I’d like to show you something.”
She opened her mouth, the obvious urge to offer a token protest forming before a small light registered in her dark gaze. Agreement? Acquiescence? Or perhaps just the acknowled
gment that it was easier to accept what was building between them than to deny it.
Nathan shifted, pulling the champagne flute from her hand and settling it on the silver tray of a passing waiter. “Come on.”
She nodded. “All right.”
…
Keira watched the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip as she stared out the window of Nathan’s limousine. He’d offered champagne when they’d gotten into the car, but she declined, opting for the glass of club soda that now sat cold and untouched in her hands.
“Where are you taking me?”
“I want to show you something.”
“Are you always this cryptic?”
His blue gaze bored into hers from across the car. “No.”
Keira shook her head at that, his one-word answer only reinforcing her point. “Fine, I’ll wait.”
“It won’t be that much farther.”
Seas of people milled over the sidewalks as their driver moved at a crawl through the traffic that crowded the Strip. “All these people. And it’s early enough in the evening for most to still have a smile on their faces.”
“Everyone loves Vegas.”
“Based on the event I’ve got going on right now, I can only thank the heavens for that simple fact.”
“What time does it start tomorrow?”
“Ten a.m. Which means the staff will be back at it around six.”
“No rest for the weary.”
She smiled at that. “None.”
Despite the darkened interior of the limo, she didn’t miss how the piercing light of his blue eyes never veered from her face. A wave of need blasted through her with the force of a rocket as their gazes met once again.
Of all the men in the world, why must she have this completely inconvenient reaction to Nathan Cooper? Even today, it had taken every ounce of her willpower not to keep looking for him walking in and among the various booths.
Her enemy.
The man who wanted to take over McBride Media.
And it was all she could do to stop herself from looking for him like a crazy schoolgirl with her first crush. The real problem is, Keira reflected as she fought to keep her gaze level with his, he doesn’t feel like my enemy. Which was the most dangerous reaction she could have.
Before she could dwell on it, the car pulled to a stop. With another peek through the limo’s tinted windows, she realized the lights outside had dimmed to the typical wattage found under a streetlamp, not billions of watts of neon.
“Where are we?”
“Come on.” Nathan’s hand was on the door as he tilted his head toward the window. “Let me show you.”
She didn’t miss the anticipation that lit up his features, and she reached for his hand as he held it from outside the car. Keira got her footing and looked around.
What were they doing in front of a large, empty patch of dirt?
“Where are we, Nathan?”
“It’s a surprise.” His grip tightened as he pulled her forward. “I want to see how good your imagination is.”
“My imagination? For an enormous patch of dirt?”
She wasn’t sure if it was the exhaustion of the last few days or a complete lack of understanding, but she couldn’t figure out what her imagination had to do with anything. Despite the lack of sleep, her curiosity allowed him to take her arm as they walked gingerly over the sun-dried, hard-packed dirt.
A heavy warmth that relaxed her limbs floated through her as Nathan shifted his hand, entwining his fingers with hers. She couldn’t miss the unmistakable connection that hummed between them in the light evening breeze as they came to a stop. With an inward sigh, she forced her thoughts to the empty land before them and off the way her hand disappeared in his. “So tell me, please. What does my imagination have to do with this?”
Nathan gestured before them with his free hand. “What do you think of my new hotel?”
“Here?”
“I just closed on the land this week. We’ll be the next major property on the Strip.”
“You’re building a hotel? In Vegas? Are you even into hotels?”
“I am now.”
The simple words full of supreme confidence washed over her. This was a man who could accomplish anything he set his mind to.
For the first time, Keira was forced to acknowledge that she really was in over her head. No matter how she spun it, she simply couldn’t compete with the money, power, and influence that Nathan Cooper wielded.
“You okay? Are you cold?” He turned toward her, his jaw going tight as his gaze skipped over her face. “I’m sorry. Let me get my jacket from the car.”
“No, I’m fine. I’m not that cold.”
He hesitated briefly before nodding, as if satisfied with her answer.
Suppressing her unease, she tried to put the conversation back on track. “So what do you see?”
“You tell me first.”
A nervous bubble of laughter escaped, the residual effect of the sudden wash of worry that any man who could build a hotel in Vegas would be equally successful at taking over her birthright. “I see a field of dirt.”
“Oh, come on, a woman with your business sense and ability to envision all sorts of solutions for your advertisers has to see something when you look.”
Keira refocused on the large acreage that spread before her, shaking off the unease. “First I see the extensive gardens and wide drive that leads up to the porte cochère.”
“Excellent. What else?”
She tilted her head back, stars visible now that they were away from the heavy neon of the Strip. “I see the hotel rising before me, twenty stories high.”
“Thirty,” Nathan corrected softly.
“Wow.”
“Set up in four separate towers.”
“How many rooms?”
“Eight thousand.”
Keira turned toward him. “Eight thousand rooms?”
“Absolutely.” Lines crinkled around the bold blue of his eyes. “What fun is it if you don’t go big?”
“For once, something we agree on.”
Nathan’s gaze returned to hers once more as he pivoted to face her. “For once?”
“What’s the point of playing if you’re not in it to win it?”
“I’m not sure I took you for the win-or-die type.”
“I’m not quite that bad, but why play in a game if you’re not interested in playing at the top of it?”
“People underestimate you.”
That heady light returned to his eyes, the one that said he saw all of her, and it sent shock waves through her. The memory of her conversation with Mayson came flooding back.
No man before Nathan had made her feel as if he actually saw her.
“No one expects my competitive streak.”
“I meant it as a compliment. Everyone thinks you’re sweet and nice, and you are those things. A consummate professional who treats others with courtesy and respect.” Before she could react, his fingers were on her face, brushing a wayward strand of hair that had come loose in the evening desert breeze. “But you’re so much more.”
Keira swallowed around the lump in her throat, the feel of his fingers on her face another form of subtle torture. Her skin grew tight from head to toe and she could feel her nipples pucker under the silk of her bra as a telltale surge of desire flooded the apex of her thighs.
Think, McBride. Think. Don’t give him an inch.
Her voice was unusually husky when she spoke. “It’s not that complicated. I work hard, expect the same from those around me, and I want to be the best. When it’s a man thinking those things, no one bats an eyelash. When it’s a woman, suddenly it’s noteworthy?”
Before she could register the movement, Nathan had his other hand flush across her lower back and was pulling her close. “It’s you, Keira. You’re noteworthy. God help me, I just can’t keep my distance. And I don’t want to.”
Pleasure exploded across every nerve ending as his lips came dow
n over hers. The pressure on her lower back increased as he pulled her flush with his body, and she knew immediately his arousal was 100 percent real. And pressed against her stomach with insistent need.
A million thoughts hammered through her brain, chief on the list what a bad idea it was to get any further involved with Nathan Cooper. But whatever she rationally knew was quickly being squashed by the hard, driving desire that flared between them like a bonfire.
She wanted this man. Wanted him in a way that jumbled her thoughts and fired her bloodstream. Her fingertips ran over the hard ridge of muscles in his shoulders, his skin searing her through the starched material of his dress shirt.
His mouth pressed to hers with mind-numbing urgency as their tongues met and mated, retreated and returned for more. One kiss led to another, the desperation flaring between them ensuring neither pulled away. Fireworks exploded behind her eyes as sensations lit the length of her body and Keira let herself go, enmeshed in the feel of him. In the way he made her feel—full of restless need she couldn’t deny.
Nathan shifted from her lips to press kisses along her jaw before whispering hotly in her ear. “I want you.”
A soft moan escaped her lips as his tongue ran along the rim of her ear. “Nathan.”
“Please tell me you want the same.”
Shifting, she pulled her head back to stare into his eyes. His electric-blue irises had turned a deep indigo, his pupils large and his eyelids at half-mast, all very clear signs of his arousal. Her breath caught in her throat as she took in the heavy gaze and knew it matched her own.
“How did we end up here?”
“We got in a car and drove here.”
Keira tried to take a step back, but Nathan kept his arms firmly around her. Unwilling to make an issue of it, she remained in his embrace but placed a hand on his chest to steady herself. Instead of giving her the distance she craved, the firm muscles underneath her fingertips nearly had her wrapping herself around him once again. Forcing her wayward thoughts to calm down, she landed on the argument neither of them could ignore. “You know what I mean. We’re on opposite sides, Nathan.”
